Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 14, 1993 TAG: 9309030394
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Calamitous, too, will be the effect on the National Flood Insurance Program, and calamity there surely will mean cost, once again, for the U.S. taxpayer.
Americans are a generous people, and it is one of the admirable traits of our national character that we rush in to help when natural disaster strikes. This is as it should be.
But generosity should not preclude common sense, and some of the disaster recovery aid that will flow to the Midwest assuredly will do so at the expense of that other deeply honored American trait.
Many of the victims of the flooding along the Mississippi River and its tributaries have been flooded out before. They're sure to be flooded out again.
Most of them wouldn't be able to absorb the repeated, devastating losses if they had to shoulder the burden alone. But they don't. We help.
Many structures built close to rivers (and along seacoasts) carry no insurance at all. Too risky. Owners of these buildings are helped to rebuild in the same high-risk areas with grants and low-rate loans from the government.
Some structures are insured, but not by any private insurance company. Too risky. The rates would be unaffordable. So these owners have purchased insurance from the NFIP - at affordable rates that are so low, unfortunately, the premiums will not cover the claims filed in a really bad year.
It's safe to assume this is going to be a really bad year.
The NFIP can borrow up to $1 billion to pay off claims, but after that threshold is exceeded, it can be expected to turn to Congress for help.
With damage already estimated at more than $2 billion in South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, the Congress shouldn't be surprised if the NFIP comes calling.
Of course the terrible hardships the flood victims are coping with must be alleviated with emergency assistance. And the extraordinary scale of this flooding has extended the rivers' destructiveness past the limits of reasonable expectation. At some points, the Mississippi reportedly is seven miles out of its banks.
Not all of these victims have tempted fate. Many have never been in the rivers' destructive path before.
But for those who have, and who are likely to be again, it is time to rethink a softhearted policy that seems at least equally softheaded.
Rep. Douglas Bereuter, R-Neb., has proposed legislation that would make lenders require flood insurance on properties lying in a flood plain, raise the premiums on that insurance to better reflect the risk, and end repeated claims.
Such legislation would mean that some people would be driven from their homes or businesses forever because they couldn't afford the insurane. The harsh truth is: There's a reason why they couldn't afford realistic insurance rates, and that reason is as evident now as it ever will be.
If they want to defy nature, let them bear - alone - the price of their folly.
Yes, this will mean heartbreak. People get rooted to place, and life along the river is like life no place else. As one woman said as she sat watching the Mississippi creep into her yard, ``But if you get out, you don't have the Mississippi mud between your toes. And once you get it there, you don't want to leave it.''
An honest sentiment. But the American taxpayer can't afford to underwrite it anymore. Those who want to stay - in the Mississippi flood plain, on the ocean shores, anywhere natural disasters are predictable and repeated - should pay for the risks they assume.
by CNB